Mark Sheeky

“As a child, computer programming was my obsession, and I worked alone at home on this for about two decades. I didn’t speak or have any meaningful social contact until my mid-thirties; my only friend in those years being a pen-pal who I wrote to monthly. I joined a local art group at that point. It was the start of 2007, and I realised that I had been an odd sort of artist, rather than a game developer, for all of my life. I began oil painting and immediately wanted to portray ideas, rather than mere copies of things. I knew nothing about art, but have learned much over the years since, and studied classical oil painting techniques like a master scientist.

My life since then has been a whirlwind of activity and I embrace all media with great energy. My temperament is romantic: emotion is the root of great art, and like a Romantic composer, I want to display my feelings, skill, and imagination; make the amount of work evident, and strive to master my skills. I reject what is easy and automated. Art must always push boundaries.

Themes in art can be social, which have more immediate emotional impact but lose context over time, or personal and universal. I make both sorts of art, but as a somewhat withdrawn person, tend to create the latter. My instincts are rebellious and my artistic heroes are Ludwig van Beethoven, I sympathise with his struggle and I love his music, and Ingmar Bergman, for his great intellectual insight into relationships and the human condition.”